The Media Shoulders Some Of The Blame For The Divide Among Police And Civilians

Police accountability and justice shouldn’t be a “left vs. right” issue, but sadly, that’s exactly what it’s turned into. It’s individuals with agendas based on personal feelings rather than facts, who are out trying to “win” an argument. At the end of the day, both sides agree that bad police officers should be held accountable. The problem is, we can’t even begin to have that debate because the media has shaped this argument to where you’re either “100 percent anti-cop” or you’re a “bootlicker who supports murderous out of control police officers.”

But in the world of revenue driven media, agendas have become more important than healthy discourse and solid factual information.

Which is why somebody like Rudy Giuliani is being given airtime on Fox News so that he can push the idea that somehow President Obama’s “propaganda” is to blame for the deaths of two police officers in New York. That’s not a factually based assessment or even rational based on things the president has said. It’s a partisan, personal agenda pushed by Giuliani and propped up by Fox News. It’s meant to drive ratings and to do what that network always does – blame everything on the president.

Then there’s the stuff from the left, like this extremely flawed article published by Mother Jones declaring that the majority of cop killers are white. In 2013, according to the FBI stats that they linked, of the 28 offenders who killed police officers where the race was known, 15 were white and 11 were black. Except, those numbers are meaningless because they come from disproportionate sample sizes. In the United States, around 63 percent of the population is white and 13 percent is African American. So, when taking into account demographic breakdown, what these numbers from Mother Jones actually say is that of the 28 police officers who were killed where the race of the offender was known, African Americans represented 39 percent of those killings despite only making up 12 percent of the population, and white individuals made up 53 percent of these killings despite representing 63 percent of the population. Not to mention a true indicator of ratio on matters such as these is best taken on a per capita (usually per 100k people) basis.

But the point of the article wasn’t to produce meaningful stats. It was written with an agenda in response to those who were clearly trying to make the race of New York cop killer Ismaaiyl Brinsley a primary focus. It was nothing more than a pointless article written to produce something to oppose them (people focusing on Brinsley’s race), and feed the left’s urge for confirmation bias.

And those are just two examples, I’ve seen plenty of other inflammatory information that only serves to further divide us, like this; and this; and this; and this; and this; and this….I think you get the point.

This kind of rhetoric has been going on for months. One side pushes their narrative while the other responds with theirs – meanwhile both sides completely ignore certain statistical facts if that information doesn’t support their agenda.

And at the end of the day, none of this partisan back and forth does anything but further divide people, raise hostilities and makes things much worse. All it’s done is created an “us vs. them” mentality and often, when paired with rage and anger, that leads to violence.

Because while it’s clear most protesters were appalled by the execution of the police officers in New York, it’s undeniable that more than just a few within these groups celebrated it. And I’m sorry, but if the message you’re pushing is attracting people who think it’s okay to brutally execute other human beings, you might want to reshape your message and the tactics you’re using.

And that’s the same message I’ve said to people on the right. If the viewpoints and ideologies that you’re spreading are such that the KKK, Neo-Nazis and other blatant racists are coming to your cause – you might want to rethink the values and messages you’re spreading. Because you’re damn sure doing something wrong.

Either way, I can promise you this much – if the media doesn’t stop fueling this divide like it’s been doing, we’re going to start seeing a whole lot more violence and lives lost.

Allen Clifton is a native Texan who now lives in the Austin area. He has a degree in Political Science from Sam Houston State University. Allen is a co-founder of Forward Progressives and creator of the popular Right Off A Cliff column and Facebook page. Be sure to follow Allen on Twitter and Facebook, and subscribe to his channel on YouTube as well.